Newcastle High Court
Cerebral palsy. Teenage Claimant. Periodic payment order. Order made for trial of issue of whether the Court should order indexation of the periodic payments other than by RPI under Section 2(9) of the Damages Act 1996. Expert evidence on issue exchanged. Claim compromised by Defendant agreeing to pay enhanced periodic payments post-19 years and an enhanced capital sum to compensate the Claimant for the adverse effect of RPI indexation. Periodic payment post 19 years £125,000 pa instead of £108,000 pa and capital of £1.45 million instead of £1.20 million. Additionally the issue arose as to the basis on which the Court could be satisfied as to the security of the periodic payment. The Defendant accepted that the Court cannot be satisfied under Section 2(4)(c) of the Damages Act 1996 if as here the “source” of the payment is an NHS Trust since (contrary to the decision of Sir Michael Turner in Begum v. Chase Farm Hospital NHS Trust, 20th December 2005) such a trust is not a “health service body” for the purposes of the Damages (Government and Health Service Bodies) Order 2005. Therefore the Court must be satisfied under Section 2(5) that the continuity of the payments is reasonably secure. The Judge made the order on this basis. Value of award on conventional basis £4.5 million plus.
Not Reported
